Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is showing a different side of himself to Iowa voters, ahead of a big speech Saturday night at the Hawkeye State’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Des Moines.
The 2016 Democratic presidential contender took center stage at a rock concert in Davenport, Iowa, on Friday night. The campaign event featured a dozen musical artists and a political speech by Sanders himself.
{mosads}The candidate, who often eschews personality politics, has allowed himself in recent days to show a lighter side, appearing on talk shows and poking fun at himself.
He’s even talked about his “ample supply of underwear,” after comic Larry David did a spot-on impersonation of Sanders on Saturday Night Live. Sanders responded with his own impression of David.
While the campaign said he’s not doing anything different, political blogger John Deeth, an Iowa City Democrat who has attended several Sanders events, said he’s noticed a slight softening of the candidate’s demeanor.
“He’s still almost all issues, issues, issues and very intense,” Deeth told the Des Moines Register. “There’s occasional personal references now. You know, he acknowledges having grandchildren, which for Bernie is really getting to the gut.”
But Sanders walks a fine line on maintaining the authenticity that his supporters hold dear.
Shasta Worthington, a 34-year-old disabled Navy veteran and Des Moines independent, told the Des Moines Register she’s drawn to Sanders’ authenticity and consistency.
“I think it’s a good thing because so many people are fed up. They start to see that passion in him,” she said. “If he were just polished like Hillary Clinton, people wouldn’t be able to relate to him. They need that passion, that fire.”
Sanders has run as a crusader for the middle class, calling himself a Democratic Socialist who wants to make college free and tax Wall Street banks.
Sanders did not back away from his high-charging, intense style in a stump speech during the concert, as he went after corporate America.
“All over this country, people are saying ‘enough is enough,’ ” Sanders told the more than 2,400 attendees, according to Quad-Cities Online. “I don’t think it’s a radical idea to suggest that maybe, just maybe, we have a government that represents the middle class and working families rather than billionaires and corporate America.”
“The right answer is that we come together and we change the system,” the senator said, “The right answer is that we don’t allow them to divide us up, if we are black or we’re white, if we’re gay or we’re straight, man or a woman, born in this country, not born in this country.”
Sanders also blasted Republican 2016 candidates for their views on reproductive and gay rights.
“It seems a little bit strange to me that when my Republican colleagues talk about family values, what they are really talking about is saying that women should not be able to control their own bodies. What they are talking about when they talk about their family values, is that our gay brothers and sisters should not be able to get married,” Sanders said.
“How about a family value that says the United States joins the rest of the world in providing paid family medical leave?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you something that no other candidate for president will tell you: No president, not Bernie Sanders, not anybody else, can do it alone. No president with the best intentions in the world can change that by himself or herself. I need your help the day after the election.”